The Jeffersonian Rumour Mill
by xXCharmed by his smileXx
Summary: Rumours spread. So how long will it take for one to get round the Jeffersonian? Not long! Can secrets ever be kept just that, secret? Apparently not. Especially when the only one who knows is one Temperance Brennan. Spoilers for Season 2


**The Jeffersonian Rumour Mill**

**Disclaimer: **The characters used in the writing of this story are not mine nor is the television series, Bones. The only thing within this story that I can rightfully claim is the plot.

**A/N: **Well it's good to be back!! I apologise so much for not uploading anything sooner but I'm in a really crucial year at school and exams sadly have to come first. Anyway I hope you like my take on the episode "The Truth in the Lye". Let me know what you think! Reviews and constructive critisism are always appreciated.

**Warning: Spoilers for season 2 episode "The Truth in the Lye"**

Dr Temperance Brennan started her day the way that she always did. Waking up, showering and arriving at the Jeffersonian before everyone else was even thinking of waking. 7.30am found her sitting at her desk finalising the report from the last case that she and her partner Special Agent Seeley Booth from the FBI, had solved.

Immersed in her report, Temperance was abruptly interrupted by the shrill ringing of the telephone on her desk. Picking up the offending object she gave her customary greeting.

"Dr Brennan."

"Dr Brennan, it's Detective Steve Mathews from the DC District Police Station. A local businessman came across some …ugh… interesting finds. Your assistance would be … greatly appreciated."

Frowning, Dr Brennan looked down at her report. It was almost finished. Key word: _Almost._ Sighing, she turned her attention back to the detective. "I'll be there in an hour."

"It's appreciated."

"No problem. Why wasn't Agent Booth notified about this? Usually he's the person that they inform about new cases."

"Yes, well. Agent Booth hasn't come into work yet. We were hoping that maybe you could get in touch with him."

Frowning, Temperance made a mental note to call Booth as soon as she ended the call. After trading goodbyes, Brennan hung up before speed dialling Booth's number. She listened to the phone ring once, twice and then:

"…Agent Booth's phone." A woman's voice flowed down the phone line to her ears

"Oh,...hi. It's Dr. Brennan. Is Agent Booth...available?" Was the only thing Temperance's shocked brain could think of at that moment.

"Uh, available? Yeah, Dr. Brennan, I-" She heard a fumble as the phone quickly changed hands.

"Yeah, Bones. What's up?" Booth's voice came over the phone, sounding strangely flustered.

"Nothing, just seeing if you got the call, and if you were swinging by to pick me up or-" She left the sentence unfinished.

"Oh yeah. Um, I'm just gonna have to meet you there, okay?"

"Okay bye." Temperance hung up the phone hurriedly, feeling distinctly uncomfortable about the conversation she had just had.

Hand still on the handset she had just hurriedly put down, Temperance tried to digest the conversation she had just had.

There was a...woman at Booth's. A woman. Well that was perfectly normal...he was a grown man after all. It was a...perfectly natural thing.

Perfectly.

Natural.

Standing up, Temperance left her office, thoughts still swirling through her head.

* * *

Returning from the crime scene, Temperance's thoughts were still in a jumble. So the woman on the phone was Booth's ex. That Temperance could understand. But she didn't for a minute believe that she was just "_picking up a comic book for Parker_". What comic book was so important that it needed to be picked up at half past seven in the morning?

So lost to her thoughts was she , that Temperance didn't notice the other person until she was nearly upon them.

"Woah, Dr. Brennan. Something on your mind?" Temperance looked up into the face of Dr Camille Saroyan, the Jeffersonian's new pathologist and department head.

"Oh...sorry Dr Saroyan. Didn't see you there."

"That much was obvious. Something wrong? You looked troubled." Temperance was shocked by the apparent concern from her boss. So far the two of them hadn't really seen eye to eye.

"Oh, just thinking. Sorry for not looking where I was going. I'll pay more attention next time."

"It's perfectly natural Dr. Brennan. Nobody's perfect. Well, I have to be going. You do know that you can talk to me if something is bothering you, don't you? I do want to have a successful relationship with my team Dr. Brennan, not just one out of necessity." With that Dr. Saroyan continued off in the direction she had previously been going.

One thing in the conversation that she had said, stuck out in particular. _Perfectly natural_. Dr. Saroyan had unknowingly quoted the words that Temperance herself had only just previously been thinking.

Whirling around, Temperance looked to see that Dr. Saroyan was almost down the corridor and in a minute would disappear from sight. Mind made up, Temperance set off after her.

"Cam!"

Stopping Dr. Saroyan turned around in the direction of the call. Waiting until Temperance was beside her before she made any comment.

"Yes, Dr. Brennan? Did you have a problem?"

"I, well actually, I wanted to ask you a personal question." Dr. Saroyan raised an eyebrow to that before continuing on in the direction she was going.

"We can speak in my office then."

* * *

Once they were both seated inside Cam's office, she turned to Dr. Brennan.

"Well...what was it that you wanted to ask me?"

"It's not really you. It's Booth." Brennan stuttered out an answer, not entirely sure how this conversation was going to go.

"Booth? What's Seeley done now?"

"No! No, he hasn't done anything. At least not to me. Well that's really the reason I wanted to talk to you. Did you know that he was back with his ex?" Temperance asked the question in one long go, hoping she would only have to ask once.

"Seeley's back with Rebecca? Again?" The look on Cam's face was one of amusement. "How did you find out?" Temperance then went on to tell her what had happened that morning.

Cam let out a laugh. "I swear those two. They're like a yo-yo."

At the look on Temperance's face, Cam could tell that she hadn't a clue what she meant.

"Seeley and Rebecca, every now and again, they get together for a fling and every time it happens they say it's the last time, it won't happen again. And it won't. At least not for a few months, maybe even a year sometimes. But then there's a catalyst that pulls them back together and the whole thing repeats again. It's not the first time it's happened. I doubt it'll be the last."

At the look of comprehension on Temperance's face, Camille could tell that she understood what she meant.

"You don't need to worry Dr. Brennan. Seeley's a grown man. He'll make his own mistakes and he'll learn from them. But he needs to make them on his own."

Temperance nodded, standing up. "Thanks, Cam."

"Not a problem, Dr. Brennan. You can speak to me at any time. Now I don't mean to be rude but I have a pile of paperwork that needs to be done, so if that's everything?"

"Oh, yes. Thanks for your time, Dr. Saroyan." Pulling open the office door, Temperance left her to her paperwork.

* * *

"Dr Hodgins!" Turning Dr. Jack Hodgins came face to face with Dr. Camille Saroyan. "Have you had any luck separating the chemical and organic matter yet?" Hodgins watched as she approached, stopping at the edge of his desk.

"I've managed to separate a few of the components but I still need to identify them and separate the rest. It's going to be tricky though." Hodgins snapped the band on his wrist, swirling his chair to face Cam.

"Tricky how?" Cam questioned, always on the look out for things that would affect the teams ability to solve the case.

"Well, it's the corrosives in the chemicals. They're corroding everything else before I can get to them. There's no way to stop the effect so it's making it harder to identify the organic matters before they dissolve." Hodgins swept a hand through his hair in frustration.

"Well, keep at it. Identify anything you can and we'll work from there. By the way, did you hear? Booth's back with his ex."

Hodgins looked up from his desk in interest. "Parker's mum?"

"That's the one, Rebecca. Dr. Brennan says that she called him this morning about the case and Rebecca answered the phone. She says that he tried to flog her off with some story about a comic book but she doesn't believe it."

"Well maybe she _was _picking up a comic book. It's not unheard of." Hodgins had put the problem of earlier to the back of his mind for the moment.

Cam raised an eyebrow. "At half seven in the morning? Unlikely. If I know Seeley, and I do, then Rebecca had been there the whole night."

It was Hodgins' turn to raise an eyebrow. "Are you speaking from experience, Dr. Saroyan?" Humour coloured his tone.

A scowl replaced the smirk on Camille's face. "Get back to your particulates Dr. Hodgins." Turning on her heel, Camille stalked off back down the corridor towards the pathology room.

* * *

"Hey Angela." Angela turned to face Dr. Saroyan standing in her doorway.

"Oh, hi Cam. Glad that case is over." Angela gave a shudder. "Come in, by the way."

"Oh, thanks. Yeah, it was a pretty nasty case wasn't it? Don't know how they thought that they would get away with it though. Putting your husband in a bath of bleach? The guy was a sleaze but that was a bit much even for him." Cam placed herself on the couch opposite Angela.

"Yeah. Almost enough to make you want to never date again. Almost." Angela added with a leer.

Cam laughed in agreement. "Yeah, almost but not quite. Speaking of dating...guess who's been caught in the act." Cam trailed off with a smirk.

"Oooh! Gossip! Let me have it. Who's dating who!!!" Angela had leaned as far forward as she could on the couch seat, any further and she would be on the floor.

"Well, I have it on very good authority from a very close friend of yours that a certain FBI agent who we all know and love, has recently rekindled his romance with his ex." Cam leaned back on the couch a satisfied look on her face at being the first to pass along the information.

"Booth's back with his ex?! Parker's mum??!" Angela had a gob smacked look on her face.

"The one and only. Dr. Brennan said that she called him this morning and Rebecca answered the phone. At half seven in the morning."

"Ooh naughty naughty Booth! Love to have been a fly on the wall in that conversation!", Angela let out a laugh at the thought.

"Well apparently he sounded rather..._flustered_." The smirk was back, firmly plastered on Cam's face.

"Oooh!! Well, better than frustrated I suppose!!!"

Their hysterical laughter echoed down the empty corridors of the Jeffersonian.

* * *

"Cam!" The angry yell rebounded through the halls of the Jeffersonian.

The aforementioned person was currently sat in her office working through the same pile of paper as she had previously been, with little success in making a dent. Hearing her name, Cam put down the report she was currently working on and started placing papers back inside of folders, knowing that she was unlikely to get any more done tonight. Fairly certain that there was nothing within reach of an angry FBI agent who was in the mood to break something, Cam sat back and waited for the inevitable confrontation.

"Cam!" The yell sounded much louder now that he was inside of her office than it did before. Storming in, Booth slammed the door shut with an almighty crash, that was undoubtedly heard all along the corridor.

"Yes, Seeley?"

"What DID you think you were doing telling everyone that I was back with Rebecca?!"

"Now, really Seeley, that's a bit of an exaggeration isn't it now? I didn't tell _everyone _and what's the problem, I only told them the truth." She sat back with a self-satisfied smirk.

"It was NOT the truth and you know it, _Camille._"

"Well maybe I bent the truth a little bit. Just a little bit though."

Booth stalked towards her, a scowl permanently carved into his face. Placing both hands down on the desk to either side of Cam, Booth leaned forward until only a few inches separated their faces.

"And _why _would you want to do that?!"

The smirk expanded until it was literally ear to ear, before she answered.

"Well, I had to get your interest somehow didn't I?" And with that she leaned in and covered the remaining inches between them.

* * *

**AN:** Well what does everyone think? Have I lost my touch for story writing? Reviews appreciated! xXCharmedXx

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